NEW CANAAN GALLERY TO OPEN STAMFORD UNIT

By RUTH ROBINSON

Published: December 6, 1987

STAMFORD commuters have the opportunity these days of adding an esthetic dimension to their somewhat hectic existence by viewing contemporary artwork on their way to and from the train. Not only are there mobiles to enjoy in the new Stamford Transportation Center, but also, on Wednesday, the Silvermine Guild Galleries of New Canaan is opening exhibitions of paintings, sculpture, photographs and furnishings at the nearby Metro Center.

Silvermine Gallery/Stamford occupies a 6,000-square-foot ground-level space within the office building's classically curved and columned facade facing the Transportation Center and Interstate 95. The gallery director, Andrew Stacik, called the new space formidable, three times as much as the gallery has in New Canaan. He said he believed it to be comparable in size to the Whitney Museum of American Art at the Champion International Building, another example of cooperation between industry and the arts in Stamford.

Visitors to the new gallery will see three shows. One is ''Connecticut Hurrah,'' paintings, prints and photographs of Connecticut landscapes and cityscapes by Silvermine Guild members. The other two, recently on view in New Canaan, have been slightly expanded for the new venue. They are ''Trompe l'Oeil Paintings by Christian Thee'' and ''Explicitly Ornamental,'' which explores ornamentalism in fine art, architecture, furnishings and crafts.

Representatives of Silvermine and of Warwick-Malkin, the developers of Metro Center, said they were pleased with the outcome of their collaboration. A vice president of Warwick-Malkin, John S. Bush 3d of New Canaan, was instrumental in bringing Silvermine to the eight-story building designed by David Childs of the Manhattan office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Willis Mills of SMS Architects in New Canaan.

Mr. Bush said they worked to make Metro Center ''an attractive people-friendly environment,'' light and active at street level and with a garden area. ''We wanted to do something in celebration of the opening of the station, and felt that an art gallery would be the best thing and wanted the best one we could find,'' he said.

The executive director of Silvermine, Grace Shanley, said that Silvermine had been preparing for a satellite branch in Stamford for some time and that when the offer of Metro Center came up, Silvermine had to act quickly to put it all together. ''In a sense it is a pilot project for us,'' she said. ''We are anxious to see how effective an effort of this sort will be and anxious to see if, in fact, the community will respond.''

In addition to exhibitions, special events like lectures are envisioned. Support for the project came from the Stamford Coliseum Authority, the Fairfield County Cooperative Foundation and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts.

The public may attend the opening reception from 6 to 8 P.M. Wednesday. Silvermine Galleries/Stamford will be open from 11 A.M. to 6 P.M. Monday through Saturday. Admission is free. The current show will continue through the spring. Metro Center is at 1 Station Place off Washington Boulevard, between Exits 7 and 8 on Interstate 95.